February 7, 2009
By Jackie Calmes
The New York Times
WASHINGTON — With the Senate on track to pass its version of the economic stimulus legislation, President Obama is widely expected to win final Congressional approval of the plan soon, and thus make good on an assortment of his campaign promises. But in the process, he is confronting the impediments to his most ambitious pledge: to end the capital’s partisan warfare.
Mr. Obama has been frustrated by an array of forces, from an often bitter and personal history of partisanship on Capitol Hill to the near-extinction of Republican moderates in the House to the deep ideological gulf between the parties on economic policy. And as his aspiration of putting aside petty politics has met the necessity of winning legislative votes — no more than two or three Senate Republicans are expected to support him, which is two or three more than did so in the House — he has gone through a public evolution that has left him showing sharper edges when it comes to the ways of Washington.
Frustrated that debate over the bill was being dominated by Republicans’ criticism, and that his overtures had yielded little in the way of support from across the aisle, the president who began the week hosting Republicans for a Super Bowl party had by Friday switched to publicly pressuring them, and rallying fellow Democrats, with a hard-line message about his unwillingness to compromise his priorities. Mr. Obama seized on Friday’s worse-than-expected jobless numbers to criticize the Senate impasse as Republicans withheld the few votes he needs.
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“His problem is not his administration. It is the institutional forces around here that have been built up over the years,” Senator Judd Gregg, Republican of New Hampshire, said before Mr. Obama chose him to be commerce secretary.
Those forces are several. First, while Mr. Obama is a relative novice to Washington, Democrats and Republicans in Congress have memories of partisan wars going back to Ronald Reagan’s presidency. Partisan habits in Congress are hard to break, and perhaps impossible in the House given its makeup.
Already, House Democrats are becoming increasingly grudging in their acquiescence toward Mr. Obama’s outreach, underscoring the balancing act the president faces. He must make concessions to Republicans without angering Democrats not only in Congress but also among bloggers and grass-roots groups that worked so hard for his election.
When not a single Republican voted for the House package last week, House Democrats basically told administration officials, “I told you so.” Both chambers have fewer of the centrist Republicans that typically cut deals, a consequence of Democrats’ election gains in 2006 and 2008. In the Senate, many Republicans are recent House graduates, more ideologically conservative than the Republicans they replaced and schooled in the House’s more confrontational ways.
After eight years under President George W. Bush, six of them with Republicans in control of Congress, Democrats have pent-up demands for domestic spending that they believe the election validated. Republicans, for their part, interpreted their defeats as a sign that they were not conservative enough in opposing spending and pushing tax cuts.
I. Find in the text an equivalent for:
A promise:
To strike a bargain:
Objection, opposition:
Composition:
II. Answer the following questions by referring to the text :
- Present the document. What is the topic of the article?
- How would you describe the atmosphere (between political parties) in Capitol Hill? How can this situation be explained?
- What is President Obama’s approach towards Congress?
- How do democrats’ and republicans’ react to Barak Obama’s political strategy?
- What sort of difficulties does B. Obama meet with.?
